Emirates Said to Seize Qaeda Supporters

By Hala Droubi

April 18, 2013

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Security authorities in the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that they had arrested seven members of a “terrorist cell” affiliated with Al Qaeda accused of plotting attacks in the Emirates and in neighboring oil-producing states, according to the official WAM news agency.

The suspects, all citizens of unspecified Arab countries, had also been “planning to recruit people and to promote the work of Al Qaeda, in addition to providing the organization with funds and logistical support to facilitate the extension of their activities to some countries in the region,” the news agency said, citing an unidentified official source.

“The source said that the State Security Prosecution will start investigation of the accused. Once these procedures are completed, they will be brought to trial,” the news agency said, without giving further details.

The United Arab Emirates rank among the West’s strongest regional allies and form the area’s most developed business and financial hub at a strategic location on the Persian Gulf.

The federation projects itself as a bastion of political stability in a volatile area dominated by the regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, attracting billions of dollars in investment from lands seized by the turmoil of revolt, like Syria, Egypt and Tunisia.

The arrests reported on Thursday follow a series of other actions designed to thwart an upsurge in Islamic sentiment in some parts of the grouping.

In December, the authorities arrested 94 members, including women, of a local affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood called al-Islah, or Reform. They were accused of conspiring with foreign groups and plotting to seize power. Another group of 11 Egyptians, said to belong to a "secret cell," was arrested early this year, accused by Dahi Khalfan, the police chief, of seeking to destabilize the Western-backed gulf states and battling their rulers.

The latest arrests were reported two days after Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, met with President Obama during a two-day visit to the United States and said on Tuesday that the emirates stood by “all countries of the world against all acts of terrorism, regardless of their sources or motives.”

He also condemned the “act of terror” at the Boston Marathon on Monday, when two explosions killed three people and wounded 170.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: United Arab Emirates: Officials Say They Broke Up ‘Terrorist Cell’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe